Hello folks! This penguin is on a solo mission for episode two of Mawaru Penguindrum. Last week’s debut episode really blew me away with its setting and how diverse the episode was itself with its use of different genres, and I find myself now incredibly anxious for Thursday nights to come so I can watch the continuing search for the Penguin Drum and how the Penguins can make me laugh out loud.

I know you all have been “drooling” for the 2nd episode of Penguindrum

After much talk of hate toward the word fate last week, Ringo Oginome opens the episode talking about her love of the word “fate”. However, she probably wishes fate would’ve have given her bigger breasts compared to the lady next to her in the bathroom.

Back at the Takakura household, the siblings enjoy a meal with their new pet penguins, feeding them sardines and mackerel. As the bishie brothers ponder more cheaper food alternatives for the penguins to eat, Himari’s hat magically appears on her initiating Seizon Senryaku yet again. The scene progression looks remarkably similar to how episode 1 was as Himari directs the brothers toward Ringo, who she thinks might have the Penguin Drum.

“Probably”

Now the brothers have at least something to work on as they search for the Penguin Drum and can bring their pengi pals with em. On a busy train ride, boys and pengis alike are pretty cramped and can’t find Ringo. Penguin #2 rolls up a couple people, feeling a girl’s butt in the process, which causes her to confront Shouma about said groping. Confused as to how to describe that a pengi she can’t see did it, Kanba steps in with his charm and good looks, claiming he did it and apologizes. Look at you Kan-san, being all sauve…

When you look that damn good, you can get away with a lot of stuff.

The train stops at Shinjuku-gyoemmae, and the groped girl and Ringo get off. Surprised to find her, Shouma runs after them with Yamashita serving as brief roadblock. He tails her all the way to Ohka Garden Girl’s High School. How to get in? Cross-dress? Cmon, man, you got invisible penguins! Kanba brings some equipment with him and straps radios and cameras to the penguins. The Penguins are using the ultimate of stealth tactics to search the high school and find Ringo and look through her belongings. #1, ever the hentai, splits her legs open. Surely there’s information to be found there!

He’s pulling out the tape. Penguin Gattai? PLEEEEAASSE!

The Penguins, wearing Snake’s Stealth Camo, infiltrate school and dig through Ringo’s stuff

#1, I’m pretty sure the Penguin Drum isn’t there, but do continue to examine the area…

As the brothers continue to tail Ringo after school (an annoyed Himari calls after Mr. Tabuki mentioned that they skipped class), they arrive at Carousel Mitsuey, a lingerie shop with a rather fancy display of bras. Ringo doesn’t try any on unfortunately, as she takes a back exit outside and is seen climbing along the side of a wall. Ever so puzzled by what she’s doing, Ringo eventually uses her phone to take a picture of something on the wall.

As the sky darkens, the brothers are still following Ringo around. She sees Mr. Tabuki and runs up to him and shows the picture of the Swallow’s Nest from the mall building earlier. He’s fascinated by the picture, and like any regular student-teacher relationship, he wishes her well and heads off. It turns out the student is the one crushing on the teacher as Ringo follows him home, eventually sneaking through an air duct and laying down comfortably underneath the floor of his room. She turns on a radio which plays something like a bird documentary as he is also listening to a bird documentary. She pulls out her diary and vows that Mr. Tabuki will never be lonely, stamping the word Destiny with an apple.

Lion OS? Pshaw!~ Everyone knows Penguins use Linux.

This is Commander Kanba, you have clearance to proceed forward, Bravo Team.

Does Ringo’s Diary hold the secrets to the Penguin Drum?

Weekly Marching of the Penguins:

Penguindrum teaches important moral lessons via train ads. No Groping on the Train

It’s cute until the 75 lb. bird almost bowls you over

I’m reminded of Ryuk from Death Note in this scene

D’aaw

Hey, you don’t mind if I eat your wieners, right? Nah, you don’t.

What game is she playing? Why of course, Air Penguin! (Jrow recommended. Fun game.)

So after last week’s surprise conclusion with some incest tones, that all seems like a distant memory by now as we’re honed in on Ringo’s stalking of Shouma’s and Kanba’s teacher, Mr. Tabuki. It’s such a weird thing to see her scaling a building just for a snapshot and then you see her later on under his house and realize, “oh, so she’s kind of looney toons.” The diary Ringo has is featured in the OP, and her stamping of the word ‘Destiny’ with an apple provides much more value to the book than just her dreams of being with Mr. Tabuki. If anything, the diary, to quote Himari, “probably” has hints as to where the Penguin Drum could be, like there are some hidden codes in correlation with Ringo’s self-proclaimed “future”. Considering her love of fate vs. what the brothers said in episode one certainly sets up a rivalry between those two sides. And remember from last week, the apple has significant meaning to the world of Penguindrum! Speaking of Ringo, this is seiyuu Marie Miyake‘s first actual character in an anime (previous roles include “Girl” and “Audition Participant”). Nice job Miyake-san!

The penguins were just so hysterical this week! They were funny and cute and cool last week, and after a genius idea by Kanba to tape surveillance cameras to them and use the Penguin OS to follow them around school, watching the stealthy little guys get into the situations they did and being so voyeuristic as #1 kept himself between Ringo’s legs at any opportunity was genuine laughs. I do wonder how the people on the train didn’t feel something underneath their feet, yet #1 spreading Ringo’s legs scared the heebeejeebees out of her. I also thought the scene with the brothers in the lingerie shop was oddly funny, Shouma asking which holes the legs go through. Kanba needs to hook him up with a girl.

There are a few things I assume we’ll have to watch for each week. First, we’ll likely see possessed Himari for a few episodes with the same routine. Each slogan on the train will have some similar situation happen in the episode (last week was trash, where the 3 penguins were first seen), and the preview shot might be the start of the next episode, as the penguin eating popcorn in the preview was in Mr. Tabuki’s house. Maybe he and Ringo will go see a movie together? An outlandish thought, maybe, but who knows… Other things of note is Himari looking at her magazine, seeing the two other girls we see in the ED theme and also Yuri Tokikago. I feel like I’ll be saying this every week, so to get it out of the way now, the show’s gonna keep me on my toes.

Aww man, that soon to being turned off by that scene? A lot of shows do it, so I can’t totally blame ya. I like the song, but can see me frequently skipping it on my iPod since the show will likely play it more than enough.

I think for a lot of people, it’s really intriguing them as to what can happen next; perhaps ponder some deeper plot elements; Utena fans excited that Ikuhara’s got a new project; funny show; penguins are cute; so on, so forth. There’s a lot to like and be interested in, I think.

This episode was pretty hilarious. The penguins were a riot no matter what they were doing, though watching them fail at crowds and ledge climbing were my favorite gags involving them. I also think that the brothers work off each other really well, both comedically and in general, by highlighting the differences between each other.

I’m guessing that the diary is the Penguin Drum, but that getting it isn’t as important as using it for something. The show has a pretty heavy fate vs free will motive, and there’s no way a diary that tells the future can’t be important. I doubt Ringo will let go of it easily, though, she’s already gone to some crazy lengths because of it already.

Ringo such a cute little stalker! But damn creeeepy hiding under yo house! I wonder if she is going to kill someone to get closer to her teacher might be interesting.

I loved getting to finally see the penguins running around, they were easily the highlight of this episode. I still wonder what the drum is for, maybe to control the penguins? I think it has something to do with that.

I didn’t find this episode hilarious, but I did find it deathly adorable. While the first episode as a mix of everything, this episode was just plain whacky. Of course, that’s not a bad thing. Can’t wait to see where the hunt for the drum takes them next.

Just about anything #2 did was pretty adorable. Looking at the bra before assuming it went on the head was funny.
And yeah on whacky not being such a bad thing. Pengis just wanna have fun every once in a while. 🙂